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While Europe is experiencing another record hot summer, climate litigation is moving forward in the EU and US. The European General Court has just accepted the first EU wide climate change case, presented by plaintiffs as the People’s Climate Case and was published in the European Union Official Journal today. This is an important initial step in the proceeding which is part of a wave of climate litigation composed of similar suits made against the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Colombia, Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, and the US.

Implementation of SDGs is up for review again at the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) from 16 – 18 July in New York. The meeting provides a window of opportunity to influence the implementation of the SDGs in the EU It is also a chance to ensure that environmental considerations are placed more in the heart of the agenda and taken into account during the following HLPFs, especially in terms of the 4-year stocktake in 2019.

In the run-up to the meeting, a new IEEP briefing reviews the current state of SDG implementation and identifies how it could be improved.

We are at a unique moment where a new picture of cooperation on the global climate scene is taking shape. The Talanoa Dialogue gathers contributions from a wide range of stakeholders, but is this a new path to global decision making or just a branding exercise?

Today, the Commission starts putting some flesh on the bones of its plans for EU spending after 2020. Their communication earlier in May set out some broad principles, which we commented on here. Over the next week or so, they will be publishing detailed legislative proposals for the different programmes; and regional affairs Commissioner Corina Crețu set the ball rolling by announcing proposals for cohesion spending.

In environmental terms there are at least two ways of looking at the prospects for 2018. Viewed through the rather sober lens of EU process, it has the look of a project completion and tidying up period with limited long term impetus to the last full year of the current European Parliament and Commission.

European countries have developed a wide range of policies to encourage climate mitigation through land use “sinks”; but as the land use sector is brought fully into the EU’s climate targets, policies will need to be more ambitious, and more focused on results.

The European Parliament’s first reading opinion on the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive, moves some steps forward in the debate on sustainable use of biomass for energy in Europe. However, the devil is in the (considerable) detail set out in the adopted text.

There is mounting interest in biomass to provide heat, power and, transport fuels but also as a basis for alternative products for replacing plastics, and other fossil fuel derived commodities. How can the bioeconomy and the bioenergy sector evolve to deliver sustainable, coordinated and efficient use of resources?

Circular economy policies are proliferating and increasingly linked with other policy areas, including climate change. As seen at COP23, the circular economy can be better exploited to decarbonise the economy.

The Future of Europe is everyone’s business and so is the impact of climate action over the decades to come.

The EU has to make sure it is able to tackle the biggest and longest-lasting policy challenge it faces. IEEP, E3G and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation have recently joined forces to make sure climate policy gets more attention as part of the Future of Europe debate launched by the Commission.

While the stand-off on agriculture is continuing between developed and developing countries within climate negotiations, there is a growing consensus among experts that agriculture --and more generally the land use sector--needs to rise at the top of UNFCCC agenda.

The Commission’s renewed strategy on EU outermost regions puts forward a new approach to foster development and appears rather ‘green’, acknowledging the ORs’ rich biodiversity as a unique natural asset.